Czech Republic and Italy to cooperate on returning migrants to Africa

The Czech Republic and Italy will launch a joint project aimed at helping migrants in Ivory Coast, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka announced on 7 September after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentillo in Prague.

The project will consist of providing funding for accommodation or medical care for deported migrants, as well as other efforts to contribute to the integration of migrants back into society after repatriation. The Czech Republic is trying to prove that it intends to engage in mitigating the migration crisis, although it still rejects the system of quotas, on which Sobotka and Gentiloni's views differ. The Czech Republic will contribute to the joint project by approximately one million euros, same as Italy. With this step, the Czech government is also showing a slightly different stance on migration than other Visegrad states. In particular, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Friday 8 September that Hungarian policies will not change even after the verdict of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Although migration to Italy has fallen sharply in recent months, Greece and Spain have seen a steep rise.